Reasons
for
American
Imperialism
1. Commercial/Business
Interests
U. S. Foreign Investments: 1869-1908
2. Military/Strategic Interests
Alfred T. Mahan  The Influence of Sea
Power on History: 1660-1783
3. Social Darwinist Thinking
The Hierarchy
of Race
The White Man’s
Burden
4.Religious/Missionary Interests
American
Missionaries
in China, 1905
5. Desire for military strength
–Led by Alfred T. Mahan
–3rd largest navy
–America needed a
strong navy.
–America needed
territories in the Pacific
to support the navy
Alaska
– William Seward
– Purchased from
Russia in 1867
– At first considered a
waste “Seward’s
Folly”
– In 1896 gold was
discovered in the
Klondike region and a
gold rush began.
Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani
Hawaii for the
Hawaiians!
U. S. Business Interests In Hawaii
1875 – Reciprocity Treaty
1890 – McKinley Tariff
1893 – American
businessmen backed an
uprising against Queen
Liliuokalani.
Sanford Ballard Dole
proclaims the Republic
of Hawaii in 1894.
To The Victor Belongs the Spoils
Hawaii Annexed
by the USA,
1898
The American Anti-Imperialist
League
Founded in 1899.
Mark Twain, Andrew
Carnegie, William
James, and William
Jennings Bryan among
the leaders.
Campaigned against
the annexation of the
Philippines and other
acts of imperialism.
Panama Canal
Teddy Roosevelt in Panama
(Construction begins in 1904)
The Roosevelt Corollary to
the Monroe Doctrine:1905
Chronic wrongdoing… may
in America, as elsewhere,
ultimately require
intervention by some
civilized nation, and in the
Western Hemisphere the
adherence of the United
States to the Monroe
Doctrine may force the
United States, however
reluctantly, in flagrant
cases of such wrongdoing
or impotence, to the
exercise of an
international police power .
Speak Softly,
But Carry a Big Stick!
U. S. Interventions in
Latin America: 1898-1920s
Results of the
Spanish American War
• Spain gave independence to Cuba and ceded
Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the
U.S. for a payment of $20 million.
• These new territories added 100,000 square
miles to the U.S. and 10 million new people.
• U.S. still exerted influence in Cuba.
• The U.S. becomes a world power.
• Anti-Imperialist tendencies begin to emerge.
America as a Pacific Power
Uncle Sam: One of the “Boys?”